In general, a medical connector, to which a medical connection tool such as a syringe or a luer lock connector can be connected, is disposed in an infusion route in order to mix and inject medicinal solution into the infusion route or to draw out body fluid therethrough. As the medical connector, there are known a cylindrical connector called a mechanical valve type in which a bellows cylindrical rubber valve with a spike built in the center portion thereof (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-505064 or Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-323397) and a connector called a split septum type which comprises a housing provided with a disc shaped valve (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-197254).
The mechanical valve-type connector is configured to internally communicate the connection tool with the infusion route in such a manner that a male luer of a connection tool is inserted into an opening of the connector while pushing a rubber valve and then, a slit of the distal end portion of the rubber valve is opened by the spike at the center portion. Although the mechanical valve-type connector is formed into a cylindrical shape so as to be connected to the luer lock connector, manufacturing cost increases because the shape of the rubber valve is complicated.
Meanwhile, the split septum-type connector is a connector formed by a housing to which the disc shaped valve is fixed, and manufacturing cost decreases because the shape is simple. The split septum-type connector is configured to allow the infusion route to communicate with the connection tool in such a manner that the male luer of the connection tool is directly inserted into the slit of the disc shaped valve to open the slit. Accordingly, in order to maintain resealing performance of the slit, the disc shaped valve is fixed to the inside of the housing so that an elastic repulsive force is large.
In the past, in order to fix the disc shaped valve, a swaging process has been used (see, for instance, PCT Japanese Translation Patent Publication No. 2-502976). The fixation method is carried out in such a manner that a valve is inserted into a cylindrical housing and then, the upper end portion of the housing is deformed inward by the swaging process to fix the valve thereto. However, in such a fixation method, it is difficult to control the deformed part and to stably fix the disc shaped valve. In addition, the upper surface of the disc shaped valve is not flush with the upper surface of the housing, and thus a stepped portion is formed therebetween. When the stepped portion is formed between the upper surfaces of the disc shaped valve and the housing, it is not possible to sufficiently disinfect the upper surfaces before using the connector, and thus germs may be mixed with the fluid in the infusion route.
For this reason, in order to fix the disc shaped valve to the housing, for instance, a connector disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-197254 is configured such that a housing of which the upper end portion is deformed inward is disposed so as to cover the valve from the upside and then a holder member is used to fix the housing. With such a configuration, although a stepped portion is not formed on the upper surface of the connector, the shape becomes complicated because the number of components increases. In addition, since the outer diameter of the connector itself becomes large, it is not possible to carry out the connection operation of the luer lock connector in which a female screw is formed on the outer circumference of the male luer. Accordingly, when a connection operation of the luer lock connector is carried out, it is necessary to use an exclusive connector, thereby deteriorating the merit that the shape of the split septum-type connector is simple.